Back to the Rebel County for Mayo GAA

On the road back to Cork

Greetings, fellow Mayo GAA fanatics. Time to fill up the tank, check the oil and pack the ham sandwiches – the first road trip of the year is in sight. Devastatingly cheated out of an away game in the salubrious surroundings of Hyde Park last Sunday week, we have been consoling ourselves since with the prospect of a trip back to Cark, boy, for the second year running. And if it’s anything like last year’s there’s a hell of a weekend in store.

You’ll remember the sickening outcome last year as Mayo conceded a goal with the last play of the game to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Tom Parsons blasted back onto the scene that day and laid down a marker for the year ahead, and if his performances in the FBD League to date have been anything to go by, he is aiming higher for 2016.

The Club ’51 crew will again be making the journey south, some of us that are partial to the drink culture on Saturday to make a weekend of it, others on Sunday morning. And all of us will no doubt be cursing the N20 and Paschal Donohue for making life difficult for everyone crawling along the windy road from Limerick (don’t mention Limerick) and the Real Capital™.

The game throws in at 2 pm in Pairc Ui Rinn,which leaves plenty of time for Mass on the way, and the man in the middle will be the one and only Maurice Deegan. Pairc Ui Rinn is of course Cork’s acting county ground while they spend a few millions worth of your money building a new stadium. There had better be comfy seats, that’s all we’re saying.

Tickets for this match are €10 if you buy them in advance either online or in Centra or Supervalu, or €15 on the day.

Getting There and Parking

(We’ve just copied this info from last year’s post because we work smart.)

Getting to Páirc Úi Rínn isn’t too difficult. Anyone that has been to Páirc Úi Caoimh before, it is only about half a mile away. Follow our map below from the City centre.

Parking however is not as plentiful as it is around Páirc Úi Caoimh (as limited as that is!). It is all mostly on- street parking around Páirc Ú Rínn so if you’re planning on driving get there early or you’ll have a bit of a trek on your hands and a traffic jam getting out.

For anyone that’s driving down either on Saturday or Sunday, if your’re stopping at Supermac’s in Ballindine show your season ticket and you’ll get a free Tea or Coffee!

Bus Travel

We’re awaiting more info on buses from Mayo and Dublin and will update this it comes in – check back during the week!

Accomodation, hai

Most people travelling down to Cork the day before will have already booked accommodation (some of the more eager among us have it done since last October), but a quick search on hotels.ie and booking.ie reveals plenty of available accommodation for the discerning Mayo GAA supporter. So get on it!

On the Town, boy

For any of you planning on travelling to Cork on Saturday, the first Club ’51 pissup meetup of the year will be happening in the inimitable Larry Tompkins’ pub on Lavitt’s Quay from 9pm. No GAA fan needs an introduction to Larry’s.

Don’t forget to call into The Shelbour Bar on MacCurtain St. owned by Philip Gillivan from Westport. Last year, anyone calling in on match day before or after the match wearing a Mayo colours and with a match ticket got a free pint of Heineken – we’ll let you know if the offer still stands!

Taxis :Add these numbers to your phone just in case you get marooned/stranded/kidnapped/lost in Cork. It happened to some people last year … but we won’t name names – you know who you are. For the rest of you, don’t say we never look out for you.

Bring the Mayo GAA colour, like

The Green & Red of Mayo

Stephen Rochford and his Mayo GAA backroom team are embarking on their first real competitive game after a challenging winter, a very short bedding in period and with an injury-ravaged panel. This is the first big step on another very long journey, so let’s show our support. The more colour we can bring, the better, and the more noise we can make, the better. We’ll be giving our banners and flags another good airing this year, so help us out, bring your own and let’s make that stand a sea of green and red.

There will be no problem outnumbering Cork’s 14 football supporters; in fact, we might need to cheer for them too.

Last but not least – travel safe and enjoy yourselves. These are the days we live for. Up Mayo!!

Anne-Marie is a researcher and by day, a dreamer by night, an occasional writer (you can find her in the Mayo News twice monthly) and a Mayo GAA nut all the time. She thinks about football far more than is healthy but to balance this out, she also thinks at length about ducks, politics, bridges and Roy Orbison.